A POSTAL worker who is behind bars after he stole £89,000 in foreign currency has been told to pay back £31,500 or spend an additional 18 months in jail.

Defendant Neil Bellamy, 40, formerly of Waltham Gardens in Crewe but who later moved to Nantwich, is serving a 17-month prison sentence after he admitted two charges of theft.

He was charged with stealing £25,000 worth of foreign currency in 2001 and a further £64,000 on a second occasion in May 2003 amid claims that sacks of money had been left in a hedge for later pick-up.

Bellamy, a delivery driver for Royal Mail, admitted the two charges at Chester Crown Court in December last year and was sentenced at Knutsford Crown Court in January, prosecuting barrister Paul Smith said at Mold Crown Court on Friday.

Confiscation proceedings had been started and an investigation carried out under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

It was accepted the defendant had benefited to the tune of £89,000. He had immediately repaid £1,000 and it was estimated that there was equity in the house in Waltham Gardens to the tune of £29,424.

There had been a timeshare property in Spain, the defendant had claimed that no longer existed because they had not kept up the payments, and the prosecution had to accept that, Mr Smith explained.

Insurance endowment policies would bring in £1,750 and there was £350 in a building society, but other assets which had been suggested by the police had been disposed of, some to the defendant's ex-wife, and it was agreed that they were no longer available.

Defending barrister John Chaplin said the figures were agreed and Judge John Rogers QC said realisable assets amounted to £31,524 and he would make a confiscation in that figure, with three months to pay so the house could be sold. He told Bellamy, who was produced from prison for the hearing: 'If it is not paid, you will serve an additional 18 months imprisonment.'